Callahan needs operation

Joe Callahan is preparing for surgery on his neck, but believes he’ll be back in time for the playoffs, or maybe a little sooner.

Callahan has been bothered for much of the season by neck pain and as the year progressed, began to suffer from “stingers,” or a loss of sensation in parts of his upper body.

He has not played since Jan. 9. Callahan is hoping the surgery can be done as early as Monday.

“It seems like I’ve been seeing a different doctor every day,” he said of attempts to diagnose and treat the problem. Every non-surgical cure has been tried and failed to work, Callahan added, and while he could probably go on and live a normal life without an operation, his pro career is over unless the surgery is performed.

“Most of the doctors think that with the operation,” he said, “I can come back and play pro hockey again. A couple say that they’ve never seen an athlete recover from this kind of injury and play professionally, but I’m going with what the others say.”

While all surgery involving the spinal cord has some risk attached, Callahan added, the procedure he is having done is not considered to be particularly risky.

Former IceCats captain Mike Mottau had a similar issue in 2006-07 when he was with Lowell and missed half the season, and since then is in his third season as a regular defenseman with New Jersey. Callahan has talked with Mottau and compared notes about their injuries. Mottau did not need surgery, but there are enough differences in the injuries so that the same treatments did not work for Callahan.

It was “here this morning, gone this afternoon” for Logan Couture and Jason Demers. Both practiced at the DCU Center in the morning, then caught 6 p.m. flights west later in the day. This is Couture’s fifth recall to San Jose this season and the third for Demers, including only the ones where he has actually been in town.

With Couture gone, the Sharks’ No. 1 line was Steven Zalewski between Jamie McGinn on the left and Benn Ferriero on the right.

DCU Center usher Dick Sasseville sang “O, Canada” before the game. It was the first time the Canadian national anthem had been done at the DCU since March 23, 2003 when Saint John played the IceCats.

Sasseville, who has sung “O, Canada” here before in French, did it in both languages last night. When Sasseville switched from English to French, Manitoba winger Guillaume Desbiens nodded his approval on the bench.

The last time the Manitoba Moose played here before last night was on April 11, 2002, and it was one of the most memorable games in the IceCats history. The Moose won, 3-2, in two overtimes in Game 3 of a best-of-three qualifying series.

Current Moose coach Scott Arniel was at the game, behind the Manitoba bench as one of Stan Smyl’s assistants. The winning goal was scored by Jimmy Roy at 5:42 of the 2nd OT. He finished off a 3-on-0 break on Worcester goalie Reinhard Divis, who played a tremendous game; the Moose outshot the IceCats, 47-25.

The teams play again here tomorrow night at 7. It will be “Guaranteed Win” night, and if the Sharks don’t get two points, fans get a free ticket to the Feb. 5 game vs. Lowell. It’s probably a good marketing tool, but it’ll give the Moose a lot of incentive heading into the night. … Ryan Vesce did not play again as he battles a groin injury. Roy Sommer said Vesce might be back next week. … Dean Strong has been loaned to Kalamazoo of the ECHL. He went 2-2-4 and was plus-3 in his first three games there.